From Wiktionary (I’m not posting a link, look it up yourself):
There have been efforts by those of African descent to reclaim the word (especially in the form n___a), but these efforts are controversial and some people do not believe it is able to be reclaimed due to its fraught history and continued derogatory usage. Regardless, usage by non-blacks is still almost invariably considered highly racist and offensive.
That doesn’t seem to be a reclaiming of a word (since it wasn’t previously used in a good way), but a reuse of a historically insulting term. I can respect the effort, but I still cringe when hearing it used as an amiable word. I don’t know if that makes me racist because I have trouble moving past it being a slur and distasteful. Maybe it’s still too new and it’s going to take a few generations to become more normalized.
“Reclaim” is still the term we use for that, even though just “claim” or “seize” might be more fitting. See also
homophobic slur
removed
which some LGBT+ people use in an almost tongue-in-cheek way to refer to themselves and each other, as a way to invert and defang the hostility with which it is used by bigots.
From Wiktionary (I’m not posting a link, look it up yourself):
That doesn’t seem to be a reclaiming of a word (since it wasn’t previously used in a good way), but a reuse of a historically insulting term. I can respect the effort, but I still cringe when hearing it used as an amiable word. I don’t know if that makes me racist because I have trouble moving past it being a slur and distasteful. Maybe it’s still too new and it’s going to take a few generations to become more normalized.
It’s because you grew up in a different culture that you feel that way. Nothing wrong with it.
“Reclaim” is still the term we use for that, even though just “claim” or “seize” might be more fitting. See also
homophobic slur
removed
which some LGBT+ people use in an almost tongue-in-cheek way to refer to themselves and each other, as a way to invert and defang the hostility with which it is used by bigots.
Huh, your slur got removed. Didn’t realize World did that, thought it was just ml or something.
Yeah, that was news to me, I wasn’t sure if it was just my client. I’m not complaining - but I’ve been half-expecting an automatic ban!
Banning would create a lot of false positives